"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science."

Albert Einstein

STAY CLOSE, MY HEART

 "Stay close, my heart, to the One who knows your ways;
Come into the shade of the Tree that always has fresh flowers.
Don't stroll idly through the bazaar of the perfume-markers:
Stay in the shop of the sugar-seller.
If you don't find true balance, anyone can deceive you;
Anyone can trick out of a thing of straw,
And make you take it for gold
Don't squat with a bowl before every boiling pot;
In each pot on the fire you find very different things.
Not all sugar canes have sugar, not all abysses a peak;
Not all eyes possess vision, not every sea is full of pearls.
O nightingale, with your voice of dark honey! Go on lamenting!
Only your drunken ecstasy can pierce the rock's hard heart!
Surrender yourself, and if you cannot be welcomed by the Friend,
Know that you are rebelling inwardly like a thread
That doesn't want to go through the needle's eye!
The awakened heart is a lamp; protect it by the hem of your robe!
Hurry and get out of this wind, for the weather is bad.
And when you've left this storm, you will come to a fountain;
You'll find a Friend there who will always nourish your soul.
And with your soul always green, you'll grow into a tall tree
Flowering always with sweet light-fruit, whose growth is interior."   
~Jalaluddin Rumi

Rumi was one of the great spiritual masters and poetical geniuses of mankind; he founded the Mawlawi Sufi order, a leading mystical brotherhood still in existence today.
 
This poem is  warns us to not allow ordinary things to deter us from our spiritual sojourns from the ordinary and mundane to the miraculous. He exhorts us to stay on the path and to remain steadfast to find what  is highest in self - to find God, whom he calls the Friend.
 
Along with Tolle, I am  cautious about using the word "God" . It has been so misused and abused. Very few truly Know GOD, but those who do,  know that GOD is not a word or the ordinary concepts, myths and stories. God is not 'dead", meet GOD in the NOW.
 
Peace and Blessings, Peace and Blessings, May you find your Way.
 BE LOVE
BE PEACE
BE COMPASSION
 
BE

Do Not Squander Your Hard Earned Pay

Do not squander your hard earned Pay.
Baby steps, my friend,
Lest you trip and fall.

Your work is not done at first light,
Nor even at the ten thousandth.
Wait a while longer and see where,
Moment to moment,
Yearnings and learnings fall in you
And how they fit in the Now.

Too much excitement over new discoveries,
Too much talking -the Ego's boasting -
Takes experience into the head brain and
Makes you drunk with the illusion of "mystical" power
And imagined Being.

In squandering your riches this way,
Carless-ness surely ensues.

Before you know it,
Revelations become clouds of confusion and babble.
No "bravado" can save you there.
No "bravado" can Awaken you there
In that sleep.

Many would be prophets walk that road
For a long time,
Lost Emperors in "new robes".
Using "tricks" to fool the masses,
They end at the End -
Empty shells
Of tatter and regret.

Work where God Lives.

Stay until you are able to Under- stand

Without quotation marks.
Stay until you Know
Your cellular structure

and the Way of things 

Intimately.

Respect your self.
Know that body is not yours alone
Know those magical glimpses of Life
Are gifts from the Beloved.
Know That which is Highest in You - is in All.
Know that each Breath is the Master
Living and Breathing You without a wink.

Learn to focus in and focus out at the same time.
Without losing sight of the one or the other.

Be Brave
Be Honest
Be Truthful
Be Sincere
Be a Warrior
Be Compassion
BE LOVE
BE

Not from the mind
But from BEING.

This is a Path.
The doorway you seek to Freedom is always Here.
In this moment and this moment and this moment....

c 21 July 2010
Laura Lopez

"Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.’" HH, Dalai Lama

Easter Sunday ~ The Resurrection

  

Women at the Tomb & the Ascension Of Christ ~ 15th Century Painting Fr. Angelico 

When the women came to the tomb they saw the stone was moved away from the entrance and that it was empty and that Mary Magdalene looked into the tomb weeping and saw two angels sitting there who asked her why she was weeping. She told them she feared someone had taken Christ away; then she turned and saw a man she at first took to be a gardener standing there.

 He also asked her why she wept and then called her name, "Mary", and she knew he was Christ and reached for him but he told her not to touch him because he had not yet  ascended to his Father; he instructed her to go to his "brethren" and tell them,  "I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God." Mary went to the disciples and told them but they didn't believe her; later that evening Jesus appeared to them in a closed room where they were hiding from the authorities. He stood in their midst  and showed them his hands and side then he said, "Peace be unto you. as my Father sent me even so I send you". When he said this he "breathed" on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained." Thomas was not with them during this visitation and when he was told of it he did not believe Christ had come. He said he would only believe if he saw Jesus for himself and put his hands on the spots where the nails and sword had been driving into the body.

Ascention by Danny Hahlbohm

Be Peace

Be Love

Be Pure in Spirit

Be Blessed

BE

The Last Supper

You will need a bible to follow along on this post. In some places I've only typed parts of the writings. To get the whole picture, sit in a quiet place and read the Book of Matthew a couple of times. Be still inside as you read. Does what Jesus says sound right for now too?

I've often heard of the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus referred to as the "Passion Play". There was a time when I believed that Jesus created the sequence of events intentionally, but now, knowing what I do about how powerful belief systems automatically taught to us from the time we are babes are, I do wonder. In any case, if he did and said these things from intention, speaking his words knowing that by the speaking of them he was setting everything in motion in a troubled sleeping world, he literally sacrificed himself to bring about change to his people.

Christ's Passion was peace on earth, getting people to care, to Love one another unconditionally. He had great compassion for the downtrodden and meek. If he knew

how things work on the metaphysical level and knew how to do, he dedicated his life and was committed to bringing about the changes he believed the people of his time needed. He 'wrote' the script using an old prophesy as a basis, and directed and produced the movie. If you believe in inter-life, he did this with a little help from his friends in High places. He knew he would be resurrected, that everyone will be. He came to Earth to do his karmic job and fulfilled his mission. I am grateful he did. Can you imagine what this world would have been like if he hadn't?

Once Upon A Time there was a King named Jesus. Just a few days before his death, Jesus told his twelve disciples what would happen to him and to them during Palm Sunday and shortly thereafter. At the Last Supper he told them again that he would be betrayed, arrested and killed for his teachings and beliefs. He said it was preordained according to the old prophecy and it was so.

On Palm Sunday: Matthew 21:12-17: "And Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all of them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold doves and he said unto them, "It is written. My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." and the blind came in to him in the temple and he healed them. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying in the temple "Hosanna to the son of David", thy were sore displeased. And said unto him, "Hearest thou what they say?" and Jesus saith unto them, "Yea, Have ye never read: Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" And he left them and went out of the city into Bethany..."

He stayed there overnight and returned the next morning. 


Matthew 21:23- "And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching and said, "By what authority doest thou these things and who gave thee this authority?"

In response to these questions Jesus tells them who they are and exposes them to themselves and the multitude through parables and in plain words: Matthew 21:45 "And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his  parables they perceived that he spake of them 46 but when they sought to lay hands on him they feared the multitude, because they (the multitude) took him for a prophet."

Matthew 22:15 "Then went the Pharisees and took counsel on how they might entangle him in his talk."

Matthew 22:23,24,26,27 "The same day came to him the Saddcees which say there is no resurrection and asked him..." Matthew 22:29 -33: "Ye do err. not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. ... in the resurrection they neither marry nor are they given in marriage, but are as angels of God in heaven... but as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, "I AM the God of Abraham, and The God of Isaac, and The God of Jacob" ? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living".  And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished a his doctrine."


He later  left the temple and went the Mount of Olives alone with his disciples (Matthew 24, 25) where they asked him when these things he has spoken of will come to pass and when the world would end. He responded and asked them to make arrangements for the Passover meal. (Matthew 26:17) In Matthew 26 the chief priests, elders and scribes get together with the high priest Caiaphas and make a plan to take Jesus by "subtilty" and kill him. Judas goes to the priests and offers to help them to get Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Matthew 26:16 "And from that time he (Judas) sought the opportunity to betray him."

The Last Supper: Matthew 26:20- "Now when the even was come he sat down with the twelve 21 and as they did eat he said, "Verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me and they were exceedingly sorrowful and began every one of them to say unto him, 'Lord is it I?' 23 And he answered and said, "He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. 24 The Son of man goeth as it is written of him, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It had been good for that man if he had not been born." 26 Then Judas which betrayed him said, 'Master is it I?' He said unto him, "Thou hast said." 26 And as they were eating Jesus took the bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat, this is my body", 27 and he took the cup, and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, "Drink ye all of it 28 For this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 29 But I say unto you I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom."

Tonight, as I eat my dinner I will reflect on the Last Supper. Millions of people around the world of all faiths and belief systems will be doing the same. There is great healing power in this Holy week. Join us. 


Be Peace
Be Love
BE

 

 The Gospel illustrations made from woodcuts made by Fr. Jerome Nadal, a Jesuit Priest -1507-1580

Plate 1: Christ being tempted by the Jews at the temple on Palm Sunday. 

 Plate 2: Christ with the Gentiles the following Monday.

Lord Have Mercy

Be Peaceful

Be Peace

Be Love

BE

"And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethpage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.  All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,  Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.  And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,  And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon." (Matthew 21:1-7 KJV)

Be Peaceful
BE

The Empty Space

I'm  currently re- reading "The Empty Space, A Book About the Theater: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate" by Peter Brook. I found it again while unpacking some old books I brought back to Florida from my old storage space in New York recently .  Brook's thoughts suit me now during this long hiatus, in this chilly rain.  My favorite line in the book is at the beginning of Chapter One: Deadly in which Brook talks about what he calls "Deadly" theater. It reminds me of how things are, really. He says:

"I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theater to be engaged."

This is how we are, as Shakespear noticed, "All actors on a stage." All of us, acting on the stage of life - somnambulating. Some who know this also know the audience is God, the All, The Power, The Force. Here we are, we are born into this place. We come with (some say) a purpose, to right wrongs from past lives, to be good, to do right. Unfortunately we forget that soon after birth and are left feeling our way about the dark to find and reach the goal or goals. As I read Mr. Brook's little book, his words shine light in empty spaces in me. Shorn of all desire to be anything other than what I Am now, in this moment, and this moment, his intelligent words stream into this old house tickling ancient  ghosts who chortle at what they once were, as they glimpse their old carcasses in the internal mirror. No longer in deep mourning and regret and filled with all their clutter and clatter, it is very quiet in here, in this empty space. I look forward to the rest of the book, the "Holy, Rough, and Immediate", and wonder what news they will bring. So far this meal, being eaten again in a different time, eons away from where I was when I first read the book,  is so rich I must take it in small bites. Care filled Patience is required lest I forget My Self.

Remember
Be Peace
BE